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Tennessee Volunteers

Grumors never die: Paul Finebaum has been told Jon Gruden will be Tennessee’s top target

Cody McClure

By Cody McClure

Published:

If you’ve ever followed a football coaching search, you’ve heard the name Jon Gruden (or if you’ve ever just watched Monday Night Football).

The thing is, “Grumors” seem to never end. Most of the time they’re not realistic. At some point, every fan base with a coaching opening speculates that its school may be getting ready to hire Gruden.

He’s always No. 1 on the fans’ hot board. Yet, up to this point, Gruden hasn’t taken a head coaching job. His last year as a coach was in 2008 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

With that said, Paul Finebaum seems to think Gruden could be a realistic candidate for the Tennessee job if it were to come open. He said as much on his radio show Thursday after a caller who claimed to be high school friends with Gruden’s wife called in and said he is hearing Jon Gruden is the top target at Tennessee.

“If I hadn’t been to Knoxville last week, I would have laughed at you,” Finebaum told the caller. “But I talked to someone, let me put it you that way, someone that I have a lot of trust in and that is connected deeply in that program and he told me the same thing.

“He said, ‘If we lose this (Georgia) game, and something happens to Butch Jones, our first choice will be Jon Gruden.’”

Oh boy.

Tennessee lost to Georgia 41-0 last Saturday. It hasn’t made a move on Jones yet, but if it does, the “Grumors” are only going to intensify.

You can hear the audio from Finebaum’s show around the 30-minute mark here.

Cody McClure

Cody McClure is an SEC Football Writer for Saturday Down South. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he also co-hosts a midday sports radio show for FOX Sports. Cody previously worked for Athlon Sports.

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